In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to celebrate what is "normal", as in in my eyes this is just a qualified person getting elected, his gender or other traits that don't effect his work shouldn't matter the least to me.

But sadly the world isn't perfect, so congrats to him, Japan is a very strict country and the amount of archaic sexism- and gender"roles" and other cultural taboo's can be very taxing for people. It's good that he's breaking ground and making it more acceptable to just be whatever the fuck you want to be.

EDIT: It makes me sad that people upvote the trans person saying I'm bragging, I have no intention to brag I don't really care about these things, just calling society as it is.

And if you'd read his post history you'd tell he's either a troll or a fake, probably both.

She also happens to be the most decent politician in the country and would have killed if she'd ever run for Prime Minister.

This is very surprising. Isnt Japan anti-LGBT? Being gay in Japan is frowned upon and people who are open about it are usually disowned and alienated if I recall correctly.
Im glad Japan has decided to be lenient on this.

Actually I would congratulate other people when they have been elected to public office. That seems like a very normal thing to do when someone manages to get elected, trans or not.

I don't know enough to refute you... but Japan has always seemed more liberal about LBGTQ issues, at least compared to other Asian countries. While it may not be widely accepted, I believe that the nature of their culture leads them to tolerate it anyway, LGBTQ who just live normal lives don't disrupt the order of society, after all. I suspect it's mainly the older generation that's against it as well, as is normal. Either way, it's a good thing that Japan's more conservative government is showing this sort of acceptance. Hopefully this sets a precedent where others like him with political aspirations won't be afraid to chase them for fear of rejection, either.

I don't think manga is a perfect representation of a country's values, unless of course if we are taking about JoJo.

Shabnam is a transgender woman, Tomoya Hosoda is the first transgender //man// elected to office

Yes and no, they still have that somewhat thai thing where crossdressing is still totally acceptable in a certain way, as evident by a lot of gender-bender manga and other such works.

But in reality if you truly are homosexual it can be much more hard for the people around to accept it, since that isn't normal but the whole gender-bender thing is.

Mr Hosoda said he does not just want to fight for LGBTQ rights but also for the rights of the disabled and the elderly, by constructing a system that embraces diversity and helps minorities

Maybe you should read more than the title.

A Transman is someone born female, and a Transwoman is someone born male.

JoJo is a perfect representation of everything.

All of those were trans women, though.

Well if he's a transgender man, it means he identifies as a man now. So what could he have possibly been​ before? Hmm. So many options. Maybe a woman? Maybe a parrot? Maybe he didn't even exist before and this is his way to gain a consciousness and physical body to better associate himself with the human race?

Transgender people are properly referred to by the gender they identify as, not what they were seen as before transition. A transgender man is FTM, a transgender woman is MTF.

Did you expect them to list all of his accomplishments in a headline?

The APA disagrees. And they know some things about mental illness.

I recall watching a Vice show with Elle Page about LGBT issues in Japan. It seemed like LGBT people were allowed to live theur lives but they were still isolated from their families who didn't accept and sometimes super fetishised by some (there's a very awkward scene were Ellen and her gay friend listen to an audio of a fake gay sex scene with two 'fujoshis', girls who are into dudes having sex with dudes).

I think the title said 'trans man' deliberately. His election is definitely not that of the first trans person; I used to live in Cambridge where Jenny Bailey was our Mayor.

It is an accurate headline. He is the first trans MAN, Beyer and Kamikawa are trans //women//.

For many trans people, it will make their lives better. Living in the body that corresponds with how they know themselves is liberating.

Edit: PM me if you have any questions, or just want to shout at me.

Jeez, you transphobes aren't consistent. Are trans people its or are we our birth sex or what? Honestly, you'll give me a bigger identity crisis than my dysphoria.

Where does it say transgender person in the title or the article? It specifies transgender man, i.e. someone born in a female body who identifies as male. The person you mentioned is a transgender woman.

I was going to post something similar about a Polish transgender politician, but I think the point is that it's the first transgender man.

Not all trans people go through hormonal or surgical gender reassignment.

Some do, and that's their choice.

I'm not sure what your argument is here.

Think of it like this to not confuse them: which gender would a trans person like to see in the noun used for them?

Obviously the one they transitioned into.

I agree that you can enjoy gay porn as long as you can separate it from how actual gay people act.

The girls in the show clearly only knew of gay dudes from the manga they read and it was a very clear misinterpretation of how actual gay people are (not all bottoms are super girly or tops super manly, fetishising rape as long as the male victim still gets hard, etc.)

Not really. You wouldn't be saying that if you knew even a little about the subject.

Honestly sometimes I believe these people spend more time thinking about gender than we actually do lmao

Well it's a big organization, I'd be surprised if they didn't have at least one accountant on staff.

No, you're right, conservatives are secretely totally progressive and in favour of gay rights. What a fool I've been.

Please go find the rock you crawled out from under, I think you'll find it more comfortable there

Maybe that's because we don't want to out ourselves to people who may or may not be transphobic.

I dunno. Given he was assigned female at birth, probably XX. Mine's XXY. I was assigned male at birth, but I am genetically an "it", and I go by 'she'. Once again, I'm not exactly sure why DNA matters. It matters as little as genitals, unless you want to fuck him.

In fact, I find your focus on genitals and DNA a little creepy.

His gender presentation, role, and pronouns are masculine. Calling him anything other than /sir/, regardless of what your personal beliefs are, is disrespectful to him and dehumanizing.

People with missing limbs aren't denied rights and are protected under law from things that LGBTQ citizens aren't.

where did you heard that? JP is definitely a conservative country but nowhere did I see being a trans make you an outcast or alienated. maybe in the countryside similar to the southern USA but certainly not big city like Tokyo, Osaka, etc

Just think about it: if you really don't want to be X, and you really want to be Y, are you gonna call yourself something-X or something-Y?

Like Yaoi is basically a gay fetish made for women and not based on reality at all. The fanbase is enormous

So just like lesbian porn in the West? You know that's not based on reality, since it's written by men and typically acted out by straight pornstars.

But when you flip the gender roles and have women lusting over gay men, suddenly that gets weird, right?

Marriage isn't the end of the fight for the community. Laws regarding marriage benefits, discrimination prevention, and not to mention these new bathroom bills taking aim at transgender individuals specifically are among many of the problems they still face. Not to mention these are problems faced in the United states alone.

The community still has a long way to go until their fight is over, weather you think it's a power grab or not doesn't erase the fact that there are still many problems they face.

It is illegal in JP except one ward in Tokyo! Not sure how that would work but it's a great achievement for a conservative country

There is, however, a real trend of crossdressing in Japan, with much higher acceptance than in the west.

I always get confused at this. Is it a woman who wants to be a man or a man who is transgender?

For one, I'm not sure why that matters. He is a man, he never was anything but a man.

For two, the term "transgender man" or "trans man" refers to a person who was assigned female at birth, but is a man, has transitioned or is transitioning to male (usually in gender presentation and gender role). Edit: He is as real as any man assigned male at birth. He just has an unfortunate hormone balance.

"Transgender woman" or "trans woman" refers to a person who was assigned male at birth, but is a woman, and has transitioned or are transitioning to female (usually in gender presentation and gender role). Edit: She is as real as any woman assigned female at birth.

Uhh, maybe it's fucking true?

Those are the labels we created a long time ago to help us identify other people. Where the problem lies is society.

I like how you very quickly go from "society uses this labels so we must use them" to "but society isn't always correct".

Physically changing yourself is not going to make you happy.

Soooo are all the people who've transitioned and say it's made them happy just liars?

Though I live in Japan, I did not know this news.
I want TV to broadcast good news like it.

You asked how it's fetishised and he explained.

It's very common knowledge that a lot of people have a very distorted view of lesbian sex from a majority of lesbian porn

And that's not normal either.

The downside to that is a non-insignificant number of those operations are actual cis gay and bisexual men, they're pressured to do the surgery under threat of being ostracized or jailed/executed.

Is this a JoJo a reference on worldnews?

Also... Georgina Beyer, New Zealand

That's the American College of Pediatricians you're thinking of.

What do you have against R.E.O. Speedwagon?

You're 100% right, I agree with you. In order to get where we need to be we need to spread this acceptance around but at the same time we need to realize that a person is a person, and what they look like or believe in should not affect at all what they are allowed or not allowed to do.

Isn't shab a transgender woman?

Your gender identity is not determined by your favorite color or what hobbies you like, nor is it determined by your genitalia. It is determined by self-perception.

As a transperson, fuck you :)

ITT: A million people who don't know the difference between a transgender man and a transgender woman

If you live in major cities, it is slowly getting accepted...slowly, but in a professional setting, people who come out will be committing a career suicide. Now if you are in country side, good luck to you.

Japan is slowly progressing towards lgbt rights, comedian like matsudelux who is openly gay and is a popular comedian are always pushing for gay to be more open and for people of japan to be more welcoming and open minded.

Source: went to Japan, and a native japanese gf.

It's bigots vs science basically. Sure, bigots will pretend to base it on science but they are either too thick to parse scientific papers or choose to ignore the material they disagree with.

Who are you to say that a person's subjective experience of themselves is not based in fact?

The answer for you about what gender you are is simple to answer, right? I'm going to assume you're male. If you ever question, you need only look in your pants. Additionally, you feel like a male. This makes sense to you, if someone else believes otherwise they must be delusional or mentally ill. For some folks, it isn't so simple.

We are a 'feature' of evolution, not a bug. And the fact that we have existed across manydifferentculturesfor millennia supports this evidence through our collective history. A trans person's gender identity incongruence is a deeply held, personal belief that is not informed by delusion or mental illness.

Conversion therapy has been tried for generations, as have giving trans folks the hormones of their assigned gender. These attempts usually result in death and are generally considered amoral methods of treatment. Furthermore, cis folks such as Alan Turing were given cross-gender hormones as a punishment for being gay as a form of chemical castration and suffered gender dysphoria. Turing committed suicide, because he was experiencing gender dysphoria. If you are trans, your own body does this to you.

The only gender dysphoria treatment that has been tested and ever worked for us is transition. Few of us with supportive social structures and good family situations regret transition. Most of us pass, eventually. There are millions of us in the united states, chances are pretty good your social circles include at least one of us if you are in North America or Western Europe.

I get that our existence makes you uncomfortable. I apologize, but it is not our responsibility to make you more comfortable. It is your responsibility to treat us like human beings, with feelings and hopes and dreams, and not like garbage, because we are all members of a civil society and that is how civil people behave. You may find that learning more about us and speaking to us as people would help you feel more comfortable.

I promise you would not "catch the gay", as it were, unless you were already having questions about your gender. If you are capable of being respectful (even if you do not know the correct terminology to use) I welcome you to ask your questions in /sub/asktransgender.

As far as I know - not against it, but there's just not a lot of awareness. Japan has pretty strict gender roles and not much concept outside that.

I think being gay isn't an issue for the most part, at least compared to many other Asian countries. Like with trans people there's not much awareness though.

If getting gender reassignment surgery will make you happy, who am i to say it shouldnt?

Who knows, didn't stop you from saying it over and over though did it?

This trans bullshit is about people not being happy with themselves and thinking its their dick/vagina making it that way. Just like the person who lives in the east coast thinks that moving to cali would make their lives better. They are still the same person. The world is still the same place.

Physically changing yourself is not going to make you happy.

Matsuo is only popular because she's two things Japanese people love to laugh at:

1 - Fat

2 - Gay

Source: I live there

She is a trans woman, the title says trans man.

Yes.

It does really matter. With the huge stigma against being trans that has always been present in the world, it's a huge achievement. There aren't people rallying against people with missing limbs because no one is trying to take away their rights or refuse to see them the way they actually are.

Fuck off with your false equivalency - gender transcends race. More importantly gender is not binary. I'm not trying to be a biological woman - I know that's not possible. There's a difference between a biological woman and a transwoman and as a transgirl myself, I completely accept that fact.

There already are ways of treating it: hormone therapy and/or gender reassignment surgery. Or are you implying that you know more than people who have conducted peer reviewed scientific research on this topic?

Conservative ideals are generally old-fashioned, views of yesteryear - that's right in the name. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, those are all views of the past. It's certainly not 100%, but there is an inherent slant.

It's not a humble brag, it's more of a grounding statement saying that while we should be celebrating the success of this person we should not care about what gender or race they are. He didn't get elected because he was trans. While because of society it is a huge step for the LGBT movement and towards more understanding and equality, we shouldn't forget the fact that if we want true equality we shouldn't put anyone down or anyone up for their gender, race, creed, religion, or any reason. When we look at this man's accomplishments, we should not have to congratulate him for being trans and getting elected, we should congratulate him on being the right person for the job. Hopefully soon society will realize how stupid it is to discriminate over something so inconsequential in the workplace and in life.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that trans or anyone in the LGBT community is inconsequential. I'm saying that in a truly equal society we would value a person for what they can contribute and do, not for what their personal beliefs or way of life happen to be.

Yes. That is why in this non perfect world we work towards improvement and celebrate achievements.

True, but it's the matter of celebrating him for making it as a transgender, rather than simply him being elected.

Okay, let's give you the benefit of the doubt. Let me explain this clearer than the other person:

If you were born physically a woman, and really wanted to be a man, and went through surgery, and hormone therapy, and went through all this legal hassle to change your name on your photo ID to Bill or Steve or John, would you want to be called a transwoman?

I personally do not believe

As soon as you say this, you throw out countless essays, papers, articles, and scientific documents supported by pretty much every medical establishment in favour of /opinion/. Opinions aren't science. I am a woman, have known that I am a woman all my life, even if I was born in a male body. Who are you to say differently?

How can you say you support us when you don't even think we're valid in who we are? How can you be so brash as to deny our very existence when we already face a life of difficulties ahead of us? I'm sorry, but you're not as supportive as you think you are.

This is the first man

That's not how it works, in Japan or in the west. It's very common knowledge that a lot of people have a very distorted view of lesbian sex from a majority of lesbian porn, thinking things like "scissoring" play a significant part of lesbian sex.

It's no more significant than people thinking normal sex is anything like porn sex and it's an industry in the west as much as it is in Japan.

It's also absolutely fine for anyone to enjoy any kind of fetish regardless of how accurate it is in real life.

You're right, I never said we did live in a perfect society, and I never said we shouldn't spread these accomplishments. All I'm saying is that it shouldn't matter what a person's color, creed, religion, or identity are. We should recognize people as they are: people.

So is it a mental illness that doesn't exist or does it not exist because it's a mental illness?

I'm afraid that's exactly how you discern between a man and a woman, their genitals.

So do you just not mentally think about people's gender until you've seen their genitals?

He was assigned male at birth, prefers he/him pronouns, has breast implants, and dresses as a woman.

Your one case is a guy protesting minority rights good job. Also voyeurism is already illegal in restrooms so your "problem" still happens with laws in place. Also I don't even know where to start with "political protections" because that idea can go to shit real fast. Does it suck people have major bias depending on political leanings? Of coarse it does but trying to force laws for protections of politocal stances will be hard to enforce and find actual cases of it happening Since people cry wolf all the time.

If gender classification is truly just nothing, then it wouldn't make sense for someone to be a trans, don't you think? There'd be nothing to transition to and from.

That's an achievement and a half considering the crippling dysphoric thoughts eating up my days and weeks until only a husk remai-I mean me too thanks

sooo trans man = used to be female? and trans female = used to be male?

Though I'm not sure if even she was the first ever, and that doesn't make either of the elections less of an accomplishment of course.

But for the first it may suck but society is what it is.

You're blaming society as though you're not the one shitting on transpersons here and at the same time telling people to ignore what society says.

Ever noticed how the right wing always seems to be where the racists are?

So just like lesbian wiggly weird touching videos in the West? You know that's not based on reality, since it's written by men and typically acted out by straight pornstars.

Yes that was the entire point I've been making. The issue is the Yaoi/Yuri fan culture often cannot distinguish between the two, LGBT groups are usually completely left out of the creation. It's fine to have this fetish so long as you acknowledge it's fantasy.
What you need to imagine is a place where when people meet a lesbian couple their mind's first go to that porn, and their suddenly seen as sexual entertainment or have fictional stereotypes attached to them. Like imagine being out with your SO, and people think it's ok to ask about your sex life and want you to preform intimate acts where they can watch, Or assume extremely incorrect info about your relationship like "Who is the dominant one?"

Also just so you know I am a straight woman myself and I am using Yaoi as an example because I'm much more acquainted with that fanbase personally.

Hmmm how to I start this... um there are genres like Yaoi and Yuri that are same-sex romance/porn manga that are aimed specifically at straight people who enjoy them. Like Yaoi is basically a gay fetish made for women and not based on reality at all. The fanbase is enormous, and doesn't really have an equivalent in the West. Being homosexual is also used as fanservice in other forms of media. I've interacted with a lot of of Americans (cough weeaboos) who think that real-life gay couples are just like yaoi. As a result these LGBT people are often sexually harassed and vastly misunderstood from their fictional counterparts. What's more insulting is the country as a whole is very behind on real rights and respect for these people.

Edit: to clarify the issue is not that I am bashing anyone who likes Yaoi/Yuri/Slash fic. The problem is that these fangroups often cannot distinguish between actual LGBT people and their fantasies. As a result real gay people are often faced with sexual harassment and stereotypes, while also not getting the legal rights and respect they deserve, ironically from some of the people who have no problem fetishizing them. (some readings link 1, 2)

I can't fathom how people like you can't grasp this simple concept.

There have been quite a few women Presidents & Prime Ministers across the world.